Champagne vs Pétillant naturel?

Champagne/Méthode Champenoise

In this method the grapes are pressed and the juice fermented dry – all natural sugar is transformed into alcohol and carbon dioxide. Once fermented, the wine is typically aged for 6 to 12 months in tank or barrel on the inactive yeast cells, increasing the yeasty, baked bread aromas. The wine is then bottled with the addition of some fresh yeast and a little sugar and sealed with a crown cap (similar to the cap on a bottle of beer). These new yeast convert this sugar into alcohol and the all-important bubbles. The bottles are then aged until the desired aromas are reached, then ‘riddled’ (turned until all the inactive yeast cells are captured in the neck of the bottle). The bottle necks are then frozen and crown caps pulled, releasing the sediment as one mass. Depending on how much sweetness the winemaker thinks the Champagne needs, each bottle is then very quickly topped with sweetened wine (known as ‘dosage’) and sealed with a Champagne cork and wire. ‘Brut nature’ is bottled without ‘dosage’ and is the driest of all Champagne styles at less than 3g/l sugar.

Pétillant naturel/Method Ancestral

In this far less common method, the grapes are pressed and the juice fermented until the desired amount of sugar is left in the fermenting mass. The wine is bottled and the fermentation continues in this bottle until there is either no more sugar left or the pressure from the carbon dioxide reaches a level that kills the yeast before they’ve finished their work and a degree of residual sugar is left in the final product.
The winemaker walks a fine line when deciding when to bottle – too early and the final product is too sweet, too late and the result can be overly dry and lacking in bubbles. Whatever the result you’re left with an incredibly natural product.